- Making European Friends! -

          I have met quite a few people since coming to Vienna and traveling around and through these conversations I have found out some very interesting things about teens here and life in Austria. One person who I learned from was an 18 year old boy named Jeremy. I met him at the Roo bar and we got to talking. He told me that he is serving the military because it is required. He is enrolled in a 9 month civil military program. If I understood right, when boys turn 18 they are required to either serve in the civil military for 9 months or in the army for 6 months. All of the boys who I met that were this age really disliked the fact that they had to do this.

          I also learned that it is the norm for kids in Vienna to learn English. Jeremy had grown up in Vienna and gone to school here for his whole life and spoke English very well. Another interesting thing I learned is that many kids our age are interested in traveling to the United States of America, and many have already traveled there including Jeremy. What I thought was even more interesting was the fact that Jeremy and others have not traveled throughout Europe as much as I would have expected. Overall I really have not discovered too many differences between life in America and life in Europe. Kids have similar interests, although soccer is much more prominent here, and kids dress similarly and like to just have fun!

- Salzburg, Innsbruck & Munich -

          Our first class trip was one of the busiest trips we will have this semester! We started by going to Salzburg where we went on the Sound of Music tour, visited the Salt Mines and visited some other sites like the building where Mozart was born! Then we went to Innsbruck, and from there me and a few other students used our day off to go to Venice for a day trip! We finally made our way to Munich where we visited the Modern Art Museum and went on trips around the city to visit historic places like the Neuschwanstein Castle and Dachau Concentration Camp.

          The trip was a lot of fun but it definitely wore me out a lot and because of that my favorite city was probably Salzburg since it was right at the beginning. One of the coolest things about Salzburg was that it was not a big city, so it was nice to get away from the buildings and busy streets of Vienna and see the country and the mountains. In Salzburg we toured the city a bit and just checked out the points of interest. The first night we went to Hohensalzburg, a fortress on a mountain, and we got to see a cool view of the city.  The next day we went on the Sound of Music tour, and it was really cold but it was fun to see the different spots because we watched the movie in class. The next day we went to the Salt Mine in Salzburg which was a totally unique experience! We had to wear ridiculous white suits and we went all the way to Germany in the underground tunnels. There were also slides that we got to go down, and there is a lake underneath that was used to extract salt and we got to take a ferry across it. We also got pieces of salt rock that we could lick and taste the salt! I really had fun because it was such a unique thing to do!

- Roma, Italia -

          I just spent the most amazing 4 days of my life in Rome! I went with my two roommates Natalie & Alison, and our friend Matt came along too. We really made the most of 4 days; we walked all over the city and started off the first day by seeing the Vatican Museum including the Sistene Chapel and the Laocoön Group statue. We made our way to the Pantheon and even stumbled across the Trevi Fountain. We also had our first Italian pizza! It was delicious, and a lot cheaper than pizza in America! That night we went out with our hostel on our first pub crawl. It was a lot of fun, we met new people, many of them tourists like ourselves from all over Europe and some from the States as well.   

           The next day we went to the archaeological area on and around Palatine Hill. This included seeing the Roman Forum and Titus' Arch. The archaeological ruins were so amazing. Matt, Alison and I are all Anthropology majors so it was really interesting to see these sights! If we did not have more to do that day I could have spent the entire day there, but eventually we left to go see the Colosseum. It was just about as amazing as I was expecting it to be. It was so cool standing next to and within something so massive, old, historic, and well-known. That night we enjoyed gelatto by the Trevi Fountain and we all threw in coins to make wishes!

            On the third day we took it a little easier. We walked around the Trastevere area and had heart shaped pizzas for lunch. During this day and the next day we just did out best to see all the rest of the sites and check out the main areas in Rome. We saw the Temple of Hercules and the Mouth of Truth, plus we saw the beautiful ruins of the Caracalla Baths. The weather was warm and we thoroughly enjoyed the sun and grass all around us. We spent a lot of time looking at the fun souvenir shops as well, I bought two beautiful Venetian masks and a ton of postcards!

           I learned quite a few things about Rome while I was there. For example, I never knew there was a pyramid in Rome, which we got to see on our last day! Plus I did not know anything about the many obelisks that exist in the many Piazzas all over Rome. It was an experience of a lifetime and it is something I will never forget! Thank goodness I took 1,000 pictures to help me remember everything!